NZ adventure guides 'poorly trained'

Between 2004 and 2009, there were 19 deaths and 448 serious injuries in the adventure sports sector in New Zealand

River Surfing down the Kawarua River Queenstown New Zealand (Barry Bland)

New Zealand’s image as a high- adrenaline, low-risk adventure travel
destination was seriously damaged last week after a West Midlands coroner
said the death of a British Gap-year student could have been avoided if
adequate safety measures had been in place.

Emily Jordan, from Trimpley in Worcestershire, died while river boarding
through rapids on the Kawarau River on April 29, 2008. Miss Jordan became
trapped under a rock “as big as a car,” according to a witness, and drowned
while badly equipped, guides struggled to save her.

Recording a verdict of misadventure, Black Country coroner Robin Balmain
slammed adventure-tour operator Mad Dog Riverboarding, concluding that “the
overall impression one gains on listening to the evidence is that the guides
panicked, they did not know what to do and they did not have the equipment
with which to do it.”